


A Gesture of Mercy

by TheColorBlue



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Canon Appropriate Violence, Gen, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-10
Updated: 2014-06-10
Packaged: 2018-02-04 03:13:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1763829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheColorBlue/pseuds/TheColorBlue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/1680635">"It Still Moves"</a> and <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/1459930">"Almond, Clavicle, Orchid"</a> by <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/users/kvikindi/pseuds/kvikindi">kvikindi</a>. Actually, these short fic are pretty dependent on your having read those other fics first, so. </p><p>Two scenes, told from Steve's perspective.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Peaceful

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [It Still Moves](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1680635) by [kvikindi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kvikindi/pseuds/kvikindi). 
  * Inspired by [Almond, Clavicle, Orchid](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1459930) by [kvikindi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kvikindi/pseuds/kvikindi). 



> _You say the word and don't know what it means. You can't point to a thing in the world and say "peaceful." But the word comes and you say it and when you say it it is the right word, the right word to say._ \- "It Still Moves"

Sometimes you're not sure about death. What you think of it.

You think about Hydra aircraft plunging into ice. You think about falling into a river and refusing to swim. Or, less refusal and more of letting go--there hadn't been anyone to tell you to struggle back to the surface. Had it been... peaceful? It had not been peaceful. There had been a kind of bleakness, loss, and then nothing.

If Bucky had been at peace.

If he could have died in serenity.

You don't know if it's a terrible thought: a desire for death. You're one to talk, the way you keep courting it. You don't know if it's terrible, because for some reason the only thing you want now is for Bucky to live. You want him to be... happy. You would not kill him as a gesture of mercy. You want him to live, as if life were a gift, and you are. You are. You don't know how you can even think any of these things, how they can mean anything coming from you.

You stand outside at the truck stop, while Sam shepherds Bucky indoors, maybe buys another romance novel, whatever it was. Outside, it is cool and wet.

Outside, your face is wet.

Grieving.

You want him to live.

And so, too: you have to live.

You, have to.


	2. Bone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _He's still careful not to touch you, since you broke his wrist. You didn't want to. It was A, B, C: the obvious next sequential action. He had touched you, so._ \- "Almond, Clavicle, Orchid"

Bucky breaks your wrist, when you touch him.

You hear the bone crack. Of course there is pain, with the violence. But Bucky is looking at your wrist in his metal hand, and then he looks at you. There is both blankness and loss. He looks like a child. He looks at you and you've known that if you cry out, he will crumple, in some undefinable, immeasurable way.

You don't make a sound.

Blood seeps down, where your teeth have cut through your lip.

"Please," you say at last.

There is blood on your tongue. 

"Bucky, please."

He lets go of your wrist, and waits.

You both wait.

You wait for the physician to return with Bucky's test results.

Your wrist is broken.

It hurts. 

You watch Bucky, carefully.

.

You wait.


End file.
